London police force racist and sexist, review says

STORY: Britain's biggest police force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic and unable to police itself.

That's according to an independent review released on Tuesday (March 21) - heaping pressure on the new chief to reform London's Metropolitan Police.

The review was commissioned by the then-head of the Met, Cressida Dick, in 2021 after a serving officer was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a young woman, Sarah Everard, in a case that shocked the country.

Louise Casey, a member of parliament's upper house who led the review, found severe failings across the Met that required "radical" reform.

''The moment that Sarah Everard was raped, abducted, raped and murdered by a serving police officer -- I find it extraordinary that in policing and in the Met police that wasn't there moment of like a plane falling out of the sky. I just think it is so dreadful and, you know, has to be a moment that change came. Change didn't come. So now this report has to carry that."

Finding that policing by consent was broken in the capital, the review said the biggest barrier to fixing the force was the Met's culture of defensiveness and denial about the scale of its problems.

Met Commissioner Mark Rowley is Britain's most senior police office.

''We've let Londoners down and we've let our own frontline down. And this report paints that vividly. And as I've said several times, I'm deeply sorry for that.''

He added that the force's professional standards department had been "stepped up," and that they are sacking officers at a faster rate, while acknowledging the job was not done yet.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said trust in the police had been "hugely damaged."

"What we need to do is to now make sure that that won't be repeated, that we can regain people's trust'

The 360-page report said the force needed strong leadership, a women's protection service, and a new children's strategy, among other recommendations for reform.